Review - The Ghost Hunter

Over recent years, Theatre of the Damned has carved out a niche style of theatre that mixes honest down to earth dialogue with scares and situations that are clearly other worldly.The clash of supernatural with the real is cleverly brought to life in their latest production The Ghost Hunter which runs at the Old Red Lion Theatre until May 25th Seated in the small venue, we wait for the lights to drop while a Victorian garbed gentleman sits patiently in the centre of the room. He has a story to tell. But this is not a solo telling of an existing ghost story but one man’s explanation and justification of the career he has made – plying the streets of York telling ghost stories to the paying public. Are the stories true or have they just been told so many times that they have become true? Does our Ghost Hunter even know? It’s clear that he has own opinions but the audience are drip fed these ideas as he examines the situations and stories that make his living. Throughout the show the character moves around the tightly packed space and engages with everyone in the audience. When he catches your eye he holds it for an interminable time, which is both engaging and unerringly terrifying in equal measures. Having experienced a similar ghost walk in York to the ones he describes, the shows feels completely real and the actor – Tom Richards is 100% convincing in his portrayal. As the subtle underlying story appears the line between what’s real and what isn’t, starts to blur. As with most one man shows, The Ghost Hunter did feel a bit long by the end and a judicious trimming of the script by Stewart Pringle may have helped crank up the tension even more. Unlike previous productions which relied on effects and jumps to create scares, this was a far more thoughtful and considered piece and maybe suffered by comparison. But all in – it was an old fashioned piece of storytelling which suited the subject perfectly. By the time the applause had died and Tom had left the small stage space, a number of questions and mysteries left us pondering the subtleties of the story and the performance. And that has to be a good thing